Saturday, 23 December 2017

Over five years a go now I wrote a blog about my War of Spanish Succession armies. I mentioned in that blog that my main source for uniform information was Rene North's "Military Uniforms - 1686 - 1918" from the Hamlyn all-colour paperbacks series. I noted at the time, in the comments, that I no longer had my copy.

Well, a few days ago Mrs T and I went up to Market Harborough to finish our Christmas shopping and no trip is complete without nipping into the two rather good charity second hand book shops to see what had been handed in recently. And, yes, there was a copy. Not my copy, of course, but a copy none the less. I paid a princely £1.50 for it, which is quite a mark up on the 6/- or 30p* marked on the back cover but a bargain in this day and age.

This edition is from 1970. I have a few other originals on my shelf from the Hamlyn All-Colour range, priced either at 6/- for one published in 1969, and 45p for the two from 1972**. Anyway, 6/- was a lot of money for a book back then, or at least I remember thinking it was. After all you could get a box of Airfix figures for 2/11 (ie a penny shy of 3/-, so half the price of the book), and the famous Sherman and Landing Craft kit for 6/-. Standard paperbacks for children - such as Enid Blyton's Famous Five - were variously 2/6 or 3/6 (12 1/2p and 17 1/2p), so I remember these books being a serious commitment in the birthday present request list for some one at primary school.

It's an odd little book in many ways. Why start in 1686? The only clue is that the text says "In 1686 the English 2nd Regiment of Foot was to wear a red coat lined with green..." . The conflicts covered are bit odd, too. You get 26 wars in a 160 page volume, including "The Brabant Rebellion" of 1789 (what????), and an odd selection of uniforms. Napoleon III's invasion of Italy is covered by four uniform illustrations, one of which is a Cantiniere(??), but as Rene points out the French uniforms are the same as the Crimean War, so that's okay, I guess, as that's in the book too. More description in text than pictures, but hey-ho, you can't have everything.

The sections that got the most use would probably have been the ones on the Napoleonic Wars and the ACW, as we could get the Airfix figures for those. Over time it helped me out with the War of Spanish Succession and The Indian Mutiny, and if I'd had it when I started my WW1 projects, I'd have used it for those too. Although on reflection, I reckon we did use it when we did our garden trench raid game in 54mm back in the mid 70's.

Flicking through the pictures now I can pretty much remember all of them, and honestly I think I'm inspired to try another period just because of them. This chap from the United States - Mexican War is animated enough for anyone. BTW, I've just noticed that good old Rene didn't actually draw the pictures, so kudos to John Berry, who did. Mr Berry also illustrated 35 Ladybird books and much of his work is now being recycled in those Ladybird for adults style books that clog up bookshops at this time of year.

Anyway, I think this picture inspired some of the younger lads in our school wargames group who, IIRC, did try to do this war using Airfix Napoleonics.

It is a bit of cliche to go on about how little we had and how much we relied on books like this in the 1960s/70s. Specialist publications were really expensive and usually obtained from libraries. (Fat chance of getting anything suitable in a library these days, but I digress). Although not cheap this book was in the affordability bracket for most of us, especially if we had an Aunt or Uncle who wanted to buy us a birthday present or would give you a book token.

So I'm glad to have a copy again. Now all I have to do is find this one:

*6/- means Six Shillings, a shilling being 1/20th of £1. I fully expect these denominations to be reintroduced as soon as we have sorted out this business with the blue passports.
** "Myths & legends of Ancient Greece", "Warships" and "Rockets & Missiles", since you ask.

There's that thing with wargamers that when ever they find something they like, they want to use it for something else. Like, when you paint up a really nice army for one period or war, and someone says "We could use it for that other war instead". Or, when you find a set of rules you like you immediately try to use them for another period.

So, Richard, our West Country friend, is really taken with Dux Bellorum. What that means is that he now wants to use them for Hellenistic Warfare. He took a trial version to the Society of Ancients Conference this year. Because he's been wargaming with me on and off for a while I must be rubbing off on him a bit, because he decided not just to adapt it to anther period, but to put it on squares too.

After our earlier DB game we went down the pub for some dinner. We discussed his ideas on the adaptation, and agreed to give it a go in the evening.

After all, who do we know with gridded cloths and lots of suitable Macedonian type figures?

(That would be me, by the way).

Setting it up was the work of a few minutes. I had Persians, to the left, and Chris took the Macedonians. We both set up with a goodly block of infantry flanked by cavalry, our frontage covered by some skirmishers. My General in the chariot with his bodyguards is comfortably ensconced behind his mercenary hoplites.

BTW I was still suffering from not having a clue anymore, and cleverly put my skirmishers in front of one of my archer units, preventing them from shooting.

Chris started off with a general advance, except with his cavalry. This is one of those sets of rules where you need to be the moving/charging unit to get the charge bonus, so you don't want to move into charge range first. It was immediately suggested you could use a Leadership Point to order a counter-charge, and this idea was adopted.

This is also a set of rules where you can't move and shoot with your archers. Consequently I sat on my base line and shot away. And tried to fix my deployment cock up. Which was frustrated by rubbish activation rolls.

Up at the top of the picture our light cavalry has clashed. At this point Chris revealed his cunning plan, which was to roll lots and lots of sixes in combat. It was a winning strategy. I countered by rolling 5 dice and getting 5 5's, which is annoying when you need a six to hit.

I was shuffling my line about at last, - you can see my general moving to the left. Was it all too late? What do you think?

The heavy cavalry clash went my way at first. In the first round of combat I stunned Alexander and his companions by inflicting 5 hits, which would normally have broken him if he wasn't so elite and so Alexander-y. BTW I think the white rings are less obtrusive than the casualty discs we used before. And we're using small stones for Leadership Points, again less obtrusive than the red/blue discs we used in the last game.

Chris continued with his winning dice rolling tactic with the infantry, and my hoplites were mostly going backwards, LPs or no.

My extreme right wing cavalry got chased off table quickly enough. I thought I had a window of opportunity to do for Alexander, but the first round of combat was the high point. At the top of the picture my general was being surrounded. You can see clearly the problem with the archers unable to move and shoot rule here. If I'm going to use them then all I can do is sit on my baseline. This needs looking at. Possibly another thing you could do with LPs?

Alexander now had the upper hand, and my remaining cavalry were falling back quickly.

As for my General...well, I don't think Darius is going anywhere now. Another spectacular loss to me

The game played quickly and smoothly. The grid was used in a rigid fashion, with no diagonal movement for infantry. Cavalry could do a sort of knight's move, keeping their facing. This fitted well with the Hellenistic Theme, and is a solution I've used before I think, in the "Rapid Raphia" rules.

Well, I got truly stuffed. Still, it was fun and with a bit more work is a good piece of development. I can see me doing that again.

Friday, 22 December 2017

The last time we met up with our West Country friend Chris A & I were treated to a game of Dux Bellorum. We were sufficiently impressed to ask Richard to run it again for us up in Shedquarters. It also gave Phil an opportunity to try it out.

This time I got the Irish, and Chris/Phil got the Saxons. The Irish are near the camera.

The Saxons set up on a hill. They were the notional defenders for this game.

My army didn't really fit on the hill I had.

I started aggressively and moved off my hill. My chariots are off on a wide right hand sweep. Phil & Chris worked seamlessly, like the experienced dounbles team they are.

Now I will fess up right now. I really don't know what I was playing at in this game. I resolved to charge the Saxons up hill, although I knew that would be fatal. I made a large number of errors because I couldn't judge the move distances correctly, and I failed completely to think through the consequences of my actions. To sum it up it all "seemed like a good idea at the time".

For example I reckoned I could take those units on the flat and hold off the flank guard elite troops with a bunch of slingers. Who can't move and shoot. You'll see how that worked out for me later.

Inexplicably I also thought that I'd be better off using my Leadership Points elsewhere in this melee. Madness.

So one of my units got bounced immediately. Because of the rules about positioning for flank attacks I was spared being roughed up by the Thegn's guard in the first round of combat, as Chris lined them up for a killing blow.

Typically I was saving my high rolls for my chariots movement. In DB you have to roll low in order to move, and high in order to hit in combat. I was getting this the wrong way round.

So I got scissored on my left flank, although due to brilliant dice rolling in this round and lavish application of Leadership Points I held on. I even pushed one unit back. In the centre I realised I had got too close to the hill.....

...so I about faced and retired, tempting the Saxons to surge down off the hill top.

Over on my right the skirmishers were having a set-to in the woods. I'm winning this one.

My left is still clinging on, and the Saxons have had to add another unit to try to break me down. My chaps on the left clearly love being surrounded. My sling armed skirmishers are out of shot, slinging into the rear of the elite unit, all ineffectually.

My feigned flight move backfired totally. Chris cleverly chucked a load of LPs into the middle and got to move out of sequence, so charging me before I could turn round. Elsewhere you can see I've got hold of a Saxon unit on the other end of the hill. I should be overwhelming him, but my spare warrior unit just will not move. My chariots, however, are now careering down on the rear of the main Saxon line. In the wood I have killed one unit of skirmishers.

My whole centre line got beaten in the melee, but no one was broken. As I have to retreat following a losing combat and shieldwalls don't pursue I've now got some space to turn and face. But at what cost? On the left I'm a unit down, but I also did for one in return.

My chariots finally hit the back of the shieldwall, but alas Phil & Chris have an infantry unit free to hit my rear as well. My spare warrior unit on the right just won't move and do anything.

So everything collides in the middle and I can't get an upper hand anywhere. This is mostly my own fault.

So my chariots get wiped out, and the left hand end of the line is being rolled up. My one ray of hope is top right, but those warriors still won't move....

...and the one melee I should have won results in the loss of another unit. All over.

We had more oddities in this game than the first, - bits where the rule didn't deliver - but overall still a lot of fun. I played one of the worst games ever, I think, and hardly made a correct decision all afternoon.

Richard accepts that he needs to do something with the hit markers, - flock them, or stick dead bodies on them, or both. Something, any way, as they are ugly on the table top. Any how, I will continue to keep an eye out for DB and pick up a copy when I can pay what I think is a reasonable price.

Thursday, 21 December 2017

We had another all day affair with our friend from the West Country recently. At his special request we did some more Op14. I took this as an opportunity to blood my 6mm Baccus 1914 BEF, and put on the Battle of Le Cateau. The scenario and map were provided by Martin Rapier of The Games We Play. Martin is a good man for Great War stuff, and I've been struggling with this scenario for a few months at least and couldn't crack it.

The British are to the right, defending the ridge line. Germans are left to top centre, trying to turn the position. There's a German corps in the middle, pinning the BEF in place, and eventually another Corps will turn up on the left of the picture, to complete the envelopment started by the German Cavalry Corps on the side of the hill.

This is the view from behind the German left flank. Lots if woods to cover the advance.

I took the BEF and Richard, our West Country friend, took the Boche. He immediately saw the importance of outflanking my right, and so pushed on at high speed through the woods. Either that or he read the briefing. In the centre and on my left he was more cautious, so the attack developed more slowly. Still, his very presence was pinning my line in place, so that probably achieved his main aim at this point of the game.

I really needed to strengthen my right rear, which was guarded by half the BEF's Cavalry Division. I decided to reinforce it by transferring the other half from my left, but alas this was frustrated by me drawing a Spade. In August 1914 BEF units may not advance if the draw a Spade, due to the inferior quality of their staff work. This was my idea, so I was truly hoist by my own petard.

Richard started to winkle out the French holding Cambrai on the left, and inflicted damage on my Soixante Quinzes deployed on the hill.

We were now three turns into the game, and Phil had arrived with the German Third Reserve Corps, whose task it was to roll up my left flank. My massed artillery was doing a fine job of discouraging Richard from advancing into the valley in the centre.

The action was all happening out on the flanks. Out on my left a brigade of Uhlans overran my French gunline, but then got somewhat stranded on the hill top. On my right my cavalry brigades finally united and deployed as the Hunnic Hordes spread out to envelope them. Fortunately for me the German artillery had paused to shell Le Cateau (centre right of the board), so these attacks would go in without fire support. All along my main line my chaps had been busy with the entrenching tool, and thrown up hasty earthworks.

I drove the Uhlans off the hill on my left, as the Germans deployed in force to attack the French dismounted cavalry in Cambrai. This looked nasty for my brave allies, but in fact it was eating up lots of time, and slowing the German envelopment.

My cavalry were putting up a stout defence, and had given the Huns a bloody nose. It was looking a bit sticky, however, as their flanks were turned.

In the centre the Germans kept advancing into the valley, then retiring the moment they got shelled by my artillery. Le Cateau was starting to take a pounding (note the shell crater) but elsewhere I was relatively unscathed.

Half way through the day, and a quick over view picture. Everything is holding, whilst the Germans mass on my flanks.

The Germans finally storm into Cambrai, driving the French cavalry back into the same square as the British infantry covering their rear.

On my right the cavalry have been driven from their defensive position and have fallen back to the river line. You will note that out on my right some German artillery has finally limbered up and is moving in support of the flank attack.

My cavalry are now back behind the river, getting ready for one last stand.

On my left the French cavalry and the British 10th Brigade have had to fall back behind the crest line to get out of the way of the German shelling.

Le Cateau is now in flames, as the Germans form up to attack across the river. I may need to start to pull back to stop being completely encircled

On my left the Germans have exited Cambrai, only to be surprised by allied forces dug in on the reverse slope.

The final turn. Illuminated by the flames engulfing Le Cateau the Germans finally attack the front line. The shelling has caused much damage to the defenders, but they are able to manage a fighting withdrawal. The German flanking forces have a failure of staff work and are unable to cross the river in the gathering gloom. A heroic performance by the British cavalry is rewarded with their escape from certain death.

Unable to exploit their success the Germans allow my flank guards to slip away. I will need to leave a brigade as a rearguard, but the rest of the army will get clean away.

And there we have it. As historically the Germans were unable to perform the double envelopment, mainly because they ran out of time. The BEF has kept its lines of retreat open and will fall back under the cover of darkness. Whether the famous "Stopping Blow" has been delivered is a moot point. The reason I've taken so few casualties and inflicted not many too is because the Germans didn't come to grips in the middle. My artillery did a good job of pinning them down, and they wouldn't press forward. Le Cateau absorbed most of their artillery fire, and despite the defenders being in a bad way when finally attacked still managed to hold the position. Under the Op14 system you don't know what damage you have actually done to concealed targets until they move or are attacked.

The game played well, with everyone enjoying themselves. It is frustrating for the Germans. They really do need to get on with it and not lose any time at all in order to envelope the position. In fact on the British left it might not be possible at all in the time available, unless the British player bottles it. On the right I think there's enough time. Against a more experienced player I would have come unstuck quite badly, and I should have thinned my front line to shore up this wing.

So a good first showing for the 6mm BEF, and a demand for future games. Excellent.

Wednesday, 20 December 2017

It's been a while since the last game with my South East Asian armies I built for DBA, following my visit to Cambodia.

So far the one recorded battle was a win for the Khmer against the Thai, back in June. However I had a chance to get the armies out for a couple of games on Monday, over at Chris K's, so here's a chance to make good that omission.

Chris had a run out first against an old MNG member, Paul Bannon, who actually used to be a regular when we were the WHELKs (don't ask, - it's a tortuously derived acronym) but then left us to go to the USA. They chose to play with the Khmer and the Burmese, mostly because that combination gives you the most elephants.

That game lead to a Khmer win, featuring an elephant shot dead with an elephant mounted bolt thrower. I ran this game as both of them are unfamiliar with DBA v3, as it turns out am I. I made lots of mistakes.

When Phil arrived we reset the game and relayed the terrain. I got to be the Khmer, and Phil ran the Burmese. The Khmer are usually at the bottom of the photographs.

We're a few moves in before I took any pictures. Phil has rushed my troops in the wood on the left, and is giving them a hard time. He is also making a flanking manoeuvre with an elephant. I'm doing something similar on my right out of shot but with cavalry.

As usual I misjudged this completely, and Phil was able to ambush me and get in a flank attack.

Luckily I saw them off, and rushed up some Psiloi to help me out.

In the wood on my left my auxilia got thoroughly turned over and I was two elements to nil down, and it looked like I was going to be handed a real thumping. Again. In desperation I ran some elements straight ahead, supported by shooting from my elephant mounted crossbow.

Phil tried to finish me off with his auxilia in the woods, but I did for one of his by flanking him with an elephant. I then killed the two infantry elements I had engaged in the centre, and shot his elephant with my bolt thrower.

So, if you re keeping count that was four elements dead and a win to me! To prove it, this is Phil's dead pile. And another win for the Khmer, which is looking to be the killer army.

DBA gives a good exciting game that is usually close. I'm not convinced this is a brilliant recreation of South East Asian medieval warfare. In all the games the elephants have not got to grips with each other. As that was the main aim of warfare in this time and place it seems a bit vacant not to have a mass elephant clash in the middle of the table. The need to for two PIPS to move them is harsh, and the need to avoid any terrain with auxilia in it provides further issues.

Still DBA isn't the only set of rules to have problems with pachyderms, so it would be cruel to complain.

About Me

I have been a wargamer as long as I can remember, pretty much.
My interests spread pretty generally across the entire historical period. I mostly prefer to develop and use my own rules. As such I've been a member of Wargames Developments since the early 80's.
I do use commercially available rules and have a large collection, - many of which have been played. I've been fond of the RFCM approach from Peter Pig in the past, and I make a lot of use of Neil Thomas' rules. They always seem a good place to start.